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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics

@psychopopular.com
105 followers 195 following 176 posts

"The point, as Marx saw it, is that dreams never come true." – Hannah Arendt blog.psychopopular.com

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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 01/10/2026
Where The Stress Falls has been such an underrated essay collection. I feel robbed that I hadn't been given a reason to read it until now.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 01/10/2026
"When books become 'texts' that we 'interact' with according to criteria of utility, the written word will have become simply another aspect of our advertising-driven televisual reality. […] It means nothing less than the death of inwardness—and of the book." – Susan Sontag
I’m sorry to have to tell you that books are now considered an endangered species. By books, I also mean the conditions of reading that make possible literature and its soul effects. Soon, we are told, we will call up on “bookscreens” any “text” on demand, and will be able to change its appearance, ask questions of it, “interact” with it. When books become “texts” that we “interact” with according to criteria of utility, the written word will have become simply another aspect of our advertising-driven televisual reality. This is the glorious future being created, and promised to us, as something more “democratic.” Of course, it means nothing less than the death of inwardness—and of the book.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 21/09/2026
Needless to say that I think this is total nonsense. And more to the point, I'm finding that it poisons a lot of even good faith efforts to engage with art in shared spaces. As soon as you finish a work, the question is "was it good?" and the framework creeps in without anyone meaning for it to.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 21/09/2026
So many people are willing to *say* that they think "all art is subjective," but in practice the discussion usually proceeds from there as if there's a quantity of "art stuff," ie artistic value, in each work. "Good" art has more art stuff, and bad art has less.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 28/08/2026
Watching Rosemary’s Baby kinda makes the death of the author feel more vindicated than ever as a slogan, despite its weaknesses.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 17/08/2026
Framing these as contradictory seems short-sighted to me. Denji's relationships to shounen-esque masculinity and heterosexuality are *constant* themes of the story, and are almost always framed critically. There's no good way to parse so much of the manga if we reduce it to just your framing.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 24/08/2025
It's far less depth than the game deserves and maybe not my best post ever, but I wanted to talk about Cross Channel, masculinity, and gender norms. blog.psychopopular.com/other-media/...
blog.psychopopular.com
Cross†Channel and Toxic Masculinity – The Orient Express
There's multiple angles that one can bring to Cross†Channel. But I'd like to focus on masculinity and gender here, rather than the broader readings.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/06/2026
This applies to other movies of course. It is just that Obsession has had such a long life in cinemas that the performative contrarians got too impatient to keep up the "I always wait for streaming to watch slop" pretense. They needed the discourse dopamine now.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/06/2026
Infinite comedy to be found here. The contortions that these posts have to go through to keep up the "I listen to indie bands" persona while being trapped by the reality that "backlash" posts are always following the crowd, just in negative. I could read them all day.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/06/2026
I genuinely love the genre of Obsession backlash posts that is like "Real movie buff here. I love going to cinemas. Finally #nw Obsession (a whole month after it got popular, like any real cinema fan). Deeply mediocre movie. Nothing interesting about it. TikTok slop."
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 02/06/2026
Something more than a little capitalistic about it all. Lots of art that's domesticated as a one-note cultural identity that you buy the right to embody. Can't say I'm a fan.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 02/06/2026
Art that doesn't fit that mould throws them off because they can't reduce it down to the "kind of person" who "consumes media like that." Fandom itself has kinda shifted to fit this mindset, becoming a series of community bubbles based around their shared themes-as-identity.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 02/06/2026
Funny tendency that's showing up in discourse around both popular horror hits right now: A lot of people prefer art that didactically tells them what to think so that they can wear those "themes" as a fashion statement.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 16/05/2026
Just a very memorable and interesting film. All of its parts come together so well, to such a degree that you're somewhat shocked while sitting there that such a simple premise and such obvious plot turns manage the kind of depth that they do.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 16/05/2026
Obviously, the biggest difference that leads to an entirely different genre situation is that one is about genocide and the other about a much more "mundane" reality. But the fact that Obsession speaks to everyday experience makes it more obviously confronting in certain ways.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 16/05/2026
Watched Obsession today. To my surprise, my closest emotional point of reference isn't exactly a horror film, but The Zone of Interest. I think they both capture something striking about evil in its solipsism and selfishness. There's this deep asymmetry between culprit and victim that pervades both.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 10/04/2026
I'm just a WH Auden account right now
Each lover has a theory of his own
About the difference between the ache
Of being with his love, and being alone:

Why what, when dreaming, is dear flesh and bone
That really stirs the senses, when awake,
Appears a simulacrum of his own.

Narcissus disbelieves in the unknown;
He cannot join his image in the lake
So long as he assumes he is alone.

The child, the waterfall, the fire, the stone,
Are always up to miscief, though, and take
The universe for granted as their own.

The elderly, like Proust, are always prone
To think of love as a subjective fake;
The more they love, the more they feel alone.

Whatever view we hold, it must be shown
Why every lover has a wish to make
Some other kind of otherness his own:
Perhaps, in fact, we never are alone.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 10/04/2026
Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays; By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems. But for him it was his last afternoon as himself, An afternoon of nurses and rumours; The provinces of his body revolted, The squares of his mind were empty, Silence invaded the suburbs, The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers. Now he is scattered among a hundred cities And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections, To find his happiness in another kind of wood And be punished under a foreign code of conscience. The words of a dead man Are modified in the guts of the living.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 07/04/2026
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 04/04/2026
Such dreams are amorous; they are indeed: But no one but myself is loved in these, While time flies on above the dreamer’s head, Flies on, flies on, and with your beauty flies, And pride succeeds to each succeeding state, Still able to buy up the life within, License no liberty except his own, Order the fireworks after the defeat.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 03/04/2026
(Cross Channel spoilers)
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 01/04/2026
How do I support the Backrooms and send the message to A24 that they should keep letting young creatives remake their passion projects, but with a higher budget, without accidentally sending the message "Hollywood should make movies about memes, and let Youtubers direct them?"
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Genma496 @genmajou.com · 31/03/2026
The second installment of Sunset Vallachia, the vampire locked room mystery series, is out now! You can read it here: genmajou.com/works/sunset...
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 31/03/2026
Welcome back, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 27/01/2026
For those who recognise the vigilantism in how ICE behaves recklessly and beyond the law, I'd like to once again point to this as one of the more important things I've written. Despite being about a silly little horror movie. blog.psychopopular.com/film/the-purge
blog.psychopopular.com
Dystopia, Genocide, and Anarchy: Some notes on The Purge franchise – The Orient Express
Shocker: A political discussion about the movies that used a MAGA hat for a poster. A real "drunk looking for his keys under the same streetlight all night" deal.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 02/01/2026
Brainstorming novel solutions for the crisis of public confidence in government.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 12/12/2025
This means that you can only ever see fascism from its "inside" here, and never grasp its roots in a wider social historical frame. A given TV show doesn't necessarily have to cover that wider perspective, but its lack here is politically problematic. The overall effect is too kind to fascism.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 12/12/2025
Its grounded in a first-person sense of life-or-death political struggle. Its avant-garde elements have a semi-Futurist feeling of motion. There's something ecstatic in the way it presents violence. Despite seemingly intending to condemn Mussolini, this approach valorises him as a "great man."
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 12/12/2025
Here's something of my impressions of the Mussolini mini-series/drama after 5 episodes: it's fun to watch and has a very clear grasp on the retributive psychology of fascism. But stylistically speaking, it kinda extends too much empathy to the emotions and aesthetics of fascism.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 10/12/2025
I wrote a short thing on One Battle After Another for those who are interested: blog.psychopopular.com/film/one-bat...
blog.psychopopular.com
The Timeless Timeliness of One Battle After Another – The Orient Express
Some short notes on a film where history accumulates like sediment—where the dead ends of the past pile up layer-by-layer without ever “moving on.”
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 04/12/2025
sochisttest.github.io
sochisttest.github.io
Socialist History Values Test
This is an attempt to make a political alignment test using concrete historical debates. Answer as if you were in the historical moment!
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 04/12/2025
Literally generic it is so over.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 01/12/2025
Fascinated by "Trump 2023" of all years, where is it pulling that from.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/11/2025
Hello Subahibi fans. Those who trusted me not to release any new posts for awhile are in for a bit of a shock: The Phenomenology of Nyarlathotep: An anti-philosophical “philosophical” investigation of Wonderful Everyday (Subahibi) blog.psychopopular.com/japan-and-as...
blog.psychopopular.com
The Phenomenology of Nyarlathotep – The Orient Express
An anti-philosophical “philosophical” investigation of Wonderful Everyday (Subarashiki Hibi/Subahibi) as well as Tsui no Sora.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 25/11/2025
I wrote a modestly lengthy thing on social fascism in response to the latest drama on the other site about it. Please give it a read. theorb.substack.com/p/on-social-...
theorb.substack.com
For Stalinists, Fascism Doesn't Really Exist
The origins, assumptions, and results of the theory of social fascism
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 23/11/2025
Here's some quick thoughts on the right's continued failure to face-up to its fascist turn. theorb.substack.com/p/im-a-polit...
theorb.substack.com
"I'm A Political Theorist from Israel and this is My Nationalism"
A quick note on right-wing Zionism and its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 23/11/2025
I've mirrored some of the recent blog posts to Substack. I feel like Wordpress is becoming less reliable over time so I wanted people to have alternatives. Feel free to take this opportunity to check out my recent post on Subahibi if you haven't. psychopopular.substack.com/p/subahibi
psychopopular.substack.com
The Phenomenology of Nyarlathotep
An anti-philosophical “philosophical” investigation of Wonderful Everyday (Subarashiki Hibi/Subahibi) as well as Tsui no Sora.
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Reposted by JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics
杉田俊介 @sssugita.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
メアリ・シェリー『フランケンシュタイン』は、怪物の訴えが突き刺さる。男性学的にいえば、怪物はこの世界の根深いルッキズムの犠牲者であり、産まれてこなかったことを夢見る反出生主義者であり、異性からの「心の共感」を求めるインセルでもある。また科学技術のプロメテウス主義=加速主義の犠牲者とも言える。 怪物には理性があり、感情や共感があり、善良な良心もあった。怪物が人間たちから怪物と呼ばれるのは、とにかく徹底的に「外見」の問題である。外見があまりに醜くおぞましいがゆえに、全人類から嫌われ、恐怖される。ただひとつの願いが「異性の怪物を作ってくれ」であるのが、あまりに悲しい。
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 18/11/2025
I've added a PDF and EPUB to this essay so that people can read it in chunks. Please check it out.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 16/11/2025
This is starting in December so there's still time to join if anyone wants to. We have 8 members so far, so don't be shy.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/11/2025
With how abstract this got, I really want to make sure that the next thing I write will be straightforward literary criticism. That said, perhaps "straightforward" just isn't how I do things. Either way, I still want to write some more stuff about art as art next.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 15/11/2025
Hello Subahibi fans. Those who trusted me not to release any new posts for awhile are in for a bit of a shock: The Phenomenology of Nyarlathotep: An anti-philosophical “philosophical” investigation of Wonderful Everyday (Subahibi) blog.psychopopular.com/japan-and-as...
blog.psychopopular.com
The Phenomenology of Nyarlathotep – The Orient Express
An anti-philosophical “philosophical” investigation of Wonderful Everyday (Subarashiki Hibi/Subahibi) as well as Tsui no Sora.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 12/11/2025
This is the article which I do not recommend. benthams.substack.com/p/how-contin...
benthams.substack.com
How Continental Philosophers "Argue"
On the unseriousness of the discipline
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 11/11/2025
I suppose that, even as padding for an article that has no substance, this is somehow less embarrassing than the parts where he tries to engage with authentic human-written examples. In those, he proves that he simply cannot parse fairly basic sentences.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 11/11/2025
I wish I had the confidence required to write an article that accuses others of not having "arguments," only to turn around and quite literally direct my own "arguments" at a computer-generated strawman.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 06/11/2025
You'll have to follow me back or open your DMs
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 04/11/2025
I'm going to be organising a small reading group for The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. It'll be starting over the holidays and run at a relaxed pace over the whole year for the sake of the slower readers. Leave a reply to express interest. I'll DM details later.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 05/11/2025
All of that said, don't get your hopes too high. Never place your faith in politicians, they will always let you down that's their job.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 05/11/2025
Congrats to Mamdani. He seems like an exceptionally talented politician. I hope he's able to accomplish some good, and also able to keep applying his same pragmatism and agility to actual governance. A DemSoc who knows how to play ball this well is rare. Even AoC and Bernie had clearer limits.
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JellyJar | Mystery novels / Weeb stuff / Politics @psychopopular.com · 04/11/2025
We should wrapping up right around the time Trump passes an Enabling Act after the midterms. Final session will be held in the internment camps.
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